1.
Ad Hominem (Personal Attack)
● Definition: Attacking the person instead of addressing their argument.
● Example: "You can't trust John's opinion on climate change; he failed high school
science."
2. Strawman Argument
● Definition: Misrepresenting someone’s argument to make it easier to attack.
● Example: "Vegetarians say we should stop eating meat, but if we all stopped eating
meat, we'd starve!"
3. False Dilemma (Either/Or Fallacy)
● Definition: Presenting only two options when more exist.
● Example: "If we don’t cut taxes, businesses will all fail."
4. Slippery Slope
● Definition: Claiming a small step will inevitably lead to a chain of related events.
● Example: "If we allow students to redo one test, soon they'll expect to redo every test,
and then grades won't mean anything."
5. Circular Reasoning (Begging the Question)
● Definition: Using the conclusion as a premise without providing evidence.
● Example: "We must trust the mayor because the mayor is trustworthy."
6. Hasty Generalization
● Definition: Drawing a conclusion based on insufficient evidence.
● Example: "I met two rude people from that city, so everyone there must be rude."
7. Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc (False Cause)
● Definition: Assuming that because one event followed another, it was caused by it.
● Example: "I started using this face cream, and two weeks later, I got a promotion. It
must be the cream!"
8. Appeal to Authority
● Definition: Saying something is true because an authority figure says so.
● Example: "This diet must work because a celebrity endorses it."
9. Red Herring
● Definition: Distracting from the main issue by bringing up something unrelated.
● Example: "Why worry about climate change when we have so many people
unemployed?"
10. Bandwagon (Appeal to Popularity)
● Definition: Assuming something is true or right because many people believe it.
● Example: "Everyone I know thinks this law is fair, so it must be a good law."
11. Appeal to Emotion
● Definition: Using emotional appeal instead of logical reasoning.
● Example: "If you don’t donate to this charity, countless puppies will suffer."
12. Tu Quoque (You Too)
● Definition: Dismissing someone's argument because they are inconsistent or
hypocritical.
● Example: "You can't tell me to stop smoking; you smoked when you were my age!"
13. False Equivalence
● Definition: Equating two unrelated or disproportionate things as if they were the
same.
● Example: "Why should we ban texting while driving? It's no worse than eating while
driving."
14. No True Scotsman
● Definition: Dismissing counterexamples by redefining the criteria.
● Example: "No true artist would ever paint something like that."
15. Appeal to Ignorance
● Definition: Arguing something is true because it hasn’t been proven false.
● Example: "Aliens must exist because no one has proven they don’t."
